The sound of the guitar is heavily processed... maybe both pre and post recording. I hear a lot of compression and EQ in addition to some delay and other modulation effects (chorus?). The compressor should help the chords ring more evenly, even across string sets. Either way, there are several things you could try to help get there in addition to the effects. For example, your pick (or fingers) and how hard you pluck/pick the strings... and where you're playing. To my ears it sounds like the chords are being played quite aggressively and that signal is being smashed with a compressor (probably during mixing too). If you play really close to the bridge vs. really close to the neck you'll get wildly different sounds. The latter bit is a bit tricky on my Stratocaster because of the floating tremolo. However, I suspect something with a hardtail might make playing extremely close to the bridge more comfortable. If I had to guess, I would think it's a guitar with single coil pickups... like a Fender in an in-between pickup position. Really sounds like something with a vibrato system though. Probably some sort of Stratocaster? Jaguar or something with a shorter scale does seem like it'd be much less uncomfortable though! I'm starting to think the recording also uses those voicings off the D string for both of those stretches... something about the way it hits the compressor and the slightly darker (or less-bright?) tone. There's always the possibility of different tunings being used... or maybe the player had unusually large and/or flexible hands.

@Dan Belcher Another way to fret that would be starting from the D string -- D=14 G=10 B=10. Results in a little less horizontal movement between the chords too, although it'll sound a little different because of the strings involved.

@Moderator: D-Mod That's actually quite insightful -- Thank you!. Very curious about whatever other books he had as well. AFAIK that was the only book mentioned in an interview.

I'm a bit of a 'gear slut' myself! To speak specifically on the sequenced synth parts -- I think I remember an interview where DF mentions that some of the synth parts were sequenced on Glamour Profession. I can't say which are sequenced... perhaps the lead? Perhaps the rhythm part that compliments the rhythm guitar? There are a number of synths that could have been sequenced in that era (1978~1980). For example, the Roland VP-330 seems like it's a likely candidate for the synth in this stripped down version of Gaucho. Here's a video demoing some of the sounds. The particular time stamp goes right to the 'analog strings.' https://youtu.be/Qs5d3lBsrkw?t=161 The way the synth swell turns into that sort of clangorous sound makes me think the Synclavier II is a possibility? This synth was (according to Wikipedia...) apparently released in early 1980. We know that DF used it a ton on the Nightfly album though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPVuYR0HeVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKB_F0nX0kE

Can't remember which interview it was offhand, but DF and/or WB referenced the George Russel book entitled the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. Maybe that would provide some hints? I've tried to track it down at various local libraries without any luck. I plan to just buy it if/when I ever get through some of the other music theory books that are around here collecting dust...

I have been sort of browsing this site for a long time~ big fan of WB. This is one of my favorite tracks and I always found it fascinating that he handled the bass part on this song -- something that is really striking about it is that it's not only very clean, but it's something that only he could come up with. As a synthesizer fan, hearing those synth parts in isolation is also interesting. I always thought that the synths used on Gaucho (the entire album) sounded like Roland stuff -- and I believe some of it was sequenced, so I've always wondered what kind of equipment they were using to link up Wendell & the synths they tracked. This particular part, although I never noticed until now, sounds a bit like a vocoder.